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Working bibliography
Иванова И. П. теоретическая грамматика современного английского
языка / и. п. иванова, в. в. бурлакова, г. г. почепцов. М., 1981.
с. 60–64.
Прибыток И. И. теоретическая грамматика английского языка /
и. и. прибыток. М., 2008. с. 88–89.
Blokh M. Y. A Course in Theoretical English Grammar / M. Y. Blokh. Moscow,
2004. P. 160–170.
Ilyish B. A. The Structure of Modern English / B. A. Ilyish. Leningrad, 1971.
P. 90–98.
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17. Verb: category of Voice
The category of voice expresses the relation between the subject
and the action, or, in the other interpretation, this category expresses the
relation between the subject and the object of the action. The obvious
opposition within the category of voice is that between active and
passive, e. g. He invited his friends — He was invited by his friends.
The relations between the subject (He) and the action (invite) in the
two sentences are different. In the first sentence he performs the action
and may be said to be the doer or agent, whereas in the second sentence
he does not act and is not the doer but the object of the action. The
opposition “active — passive” is represented by a number of forms
involving the categories of tense, aspect and mood:
asks — is asked;
is asking — is being asked;
has asked — has been asked;
would ask — would be asked.
The passive is the marked member of the opposition, its
characteristic feature is the pattern “be + Participle II”, whereas the
active voice is unmarked.
It should be remembered that some forms of the active voice find no
parallel in the passive, namely the future continuous, the present perfect
continuous, the past perfect continuous, the future perfect continuous.
There are also some lexical limitations, as not all the verbs capable
of taking an object are actually used in the passive. In particular, the
passive form is alien to many verbs of the statal subclass, such as have,
belong, cost, resemble, fail. But one cannot draw a hard and fast line
between these sets of verbs, because the verbs of one set can migrate
into the other in various contextual conditions, e. g. The bed has not
been slept in for a long time.
Of special interest is the fact that the category of voice has a much
broader representation in the system of the English verb than in that
of the Russian verb. In English not only transitive but also intransitive
objective verbs including prepositional ones can be used in the passive,
e. g. The dress has never been tried on. The so called ditransitive verbs
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capable of taking two objects can feature both of them in the passive
subject position, e. g. I’ll tell you the truth — You’ll be told the truth —
The truth will be told to you. Differences in the systems of English
passive voice and Russian “страдательный залог” account for the fact
that English passive forms can be translated into Russian in various
ways: by passive voice forms, by middle-reflexive voice forms ending in
-ся/-сь, by impersonal sentences, by active voice forms. These are some
practical aspects of the categorical opposition between the active voice
and the passive voice. However, in theoretical approach the problems
of the reflexive voice (He shaved himself), the reciprocal voice (They
greeted each other), and the middle voice ( The door opened) should
also be considered.
To put the problems of the reflexive voice or the reciprocal voice
into morphological terms is to find out if the self-pronouns or reciprocal
pronouns can be auxiliary words serving to drive a voice-form of the
verb. In term of syntax it is to wonder if a self-pronoun or a reciprocal
pronoun always performs the function of a direct object or makes up a
part of predicate. As a result of profound studies it has been shown that
self-pronouns or reciprocal pronouns standing after verbs can be treated
as denoting the object of the action. Cf.: I am defending myself — an
accused person; They kissed each other and the child. Such cases as
to find oneself are rare enough and should be referred to lexicology.
The problem of the middle voice is connected with the possibility
to use some transitive verbs as intransitive. Cf.: I opened the door —
The door opened; I boiled the water — The water boiled; We apply this
rule to… — This rule applies to…
B. A. Ilyish discusses three different interpretations of this
phenomenon presented in literature. One interpretation is that in each
line we have two different though homonymous verbs: open 1 —
transitive and open 2 — intransitive. The whole problem is thus shifted
into the sphere of lexicology. Another interpretation is like this. The
verb in both columns is the same, and the difference between the
two is the difference of voice: in the first column we have an active
voice form, while in the second column it is the middle voice which
denotes a process going on within the subject without affecting any
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object. The difference between the voices is not expressed by any
morphological signs, but it is revealed in meaning and in syntactic
structure. Still another interpretation does not admit of the middle
voice in English. The verb in both columns is the same and the voice
is the same, namely, the active voice, since there is no morphological
difference between the forms under discussion. The third interpretation
prevails in English grammars because it allows scholars to accept only
two voices: the active and the passive. However, there is a possibility to
treat the middle voice as an implicit grammatical category of Modern
English.
The passive construction “be + Participle” should be distinguished
from the identical pattern of the compound nominal predicate. Cf.: You
are mistaken (You are wrong) — You are often mistaken for your cousin.
The constructions are alike, but their meanings differ. The first
sentence expresses a state, while in the second sentence we have an
action expressed. It is the context that shows the difference between the
“passive of state” and the “passive of action”. Cf.: The door on the right
was closed, while the door on the left was open — The door was closed
by the girl as softly as possible.
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